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Stupid Girls
"Stupid Girls" (registered on P!nk's BMI as "Stupid Girl"BMI | Repertoire) is a song by American artist P!nk, released as the first single from her 2006 album, I'm Not Dead. The song was written by Billy Mann, P!nk, Niklas Olovson and Robin Mortensen Lynch and produced by Billy Mann and MachoPsycho. "Stupid Girls" was written as a sort of mockery towards the poor role models displayed in the public for young girls growing up, specifically in Los Angeles. Background In 2006, P!nk spoke with The Independent ''about the song, stating: Reception The single entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in the week of February 25 at number twenty-four, the week's highest debut and the highest debut of P!nk's career (later topped by her 2008 single, "So What"). In the week of March 4, it climbed to number thirteen, becoming Pink's eighth top twenty single in the United States and her highest peaking single since "Just Like A Pill". Its peak on the Top 40 Mainstream airplay chart, however, did not match that of most of her previous singles. "Stupid Girls" remained on the Hot 100 for sixteen weeks, and it reached the top twenty on the Pop 100 and appeared on the Adult Top 40. It received airplay in nightclubs, peaking inside the top twenty on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. "Stupid Girls" was certified Gold by RIAA on February 13, 2008. The single was a bigger chart hit elsewhere—it reached number two on the Canadian Singles Chart, and on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, it entered at number four and is certified gold for sales of over 35,000. It was ranked number thirty-ninth on ARIA's top 100 singles of 2006 list. It also peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Pink's highest charting single in the UK since "Feel Good Time". It reached the top ten in most countries in Europe. "Stupid Girls" was nominated in the category of Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 2007 Grammy Awards. The single was praised by Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling on her official website. She wrote, "'Stupid Girls', is the antidote-anthem for everything I had been thinking about women and thinness." Music video The single's video was directed by Dave Meyers and premiered on MTV's broadband channel Overdrive on January 26, 2006. Meyers and P!nk shot the videos for "Stupid Girls" and "U + Ur Hand", the album's third single, before the decision was made as to which would become the album's lead single. P!nk described the video as "sick and twisted and insane" and said of Meyers, "He has an insane imagination. I don't think everyone else is going to laugh, but just know that we all did." P!nk did her own stunts for the video. According to Barry Weiss, president of Zomba Music Group, executives at P!nk's label were reluctant to release the song as the album's first single until the video "hit a chord" with them. They decided to release the video before issuing the song to radio, and 8.6 million people downloaded the video when it was made available on the Internet. Zomba's senior vice president of marketing Janet Kleinbaum said that radio programmers "went online to download the audio from the video in order to get it on radio". The video shows P!nk as an angel and a demon who try to influence the future of a young girl. The angel shows her a series of images demonstrating the stupidity of current trends in female celebrity, and the images feature P!nk in various roles, including a dancer in a 50 Cent video, a girl attempting to attract the attention of an instructor at the gym, a girl who uses her emergency inflatable breasts at a bowling alley, a girl at a tanning salon, a girl with purging disorder who considers calories "so not sexy", an old woman in a pink tracksuit who looks as if she is trying too hard to look young, a girl getting plastic surgery, a girl making a sex tape, a girl washing her car and rubbing a facecloth and soap all over herself, and a girl who goes into what looks like a pet shop, buys an "itsy bitsy doggy" with the advertisement that it "stays younger longer", and drives her car so carelessly while putting on makeup that she runs over two people. P!nk also plays characters meant to represent the opposite of "stupid girls", such as a female president and a girl winning a game of football. The video ends with the girl choosing a football (fitness), a computer (work), books (knowledge and adequate education), dance shoes (love), and a keyboard (leisure) over makeup (vanity) and a set of dolls (children) as she wants a normal life and the images are too overwhelming for her; the demon is defeated. Some of the negatively portrayed characters in the video are parodies of young female celebrities such as Mary-Kate Olsen, who provides the basis for the Boho-chic dressing style of the girl who visits a Fred Segal clothing store. The redheaded girl who accidentally hits pedestrians with her car is a parody of Lindsay Lohan. The scene in which Pink washes a car in a bikini is a parody of similar scenes in the video for Jessica Simpson's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" and a 2005 Carl's Jr. television commercial featuring Paris Hilton. The digital video shots showing Pink in bed with a man parallel those in the Paris Hilton sex tape 1 Night in Paris. The scene where Pink portrays a blonde coming into a bathroom throwing up food in order to be skinny (portraying bulimia) is reported to be portraying Nicole Richie. The man portraying 50 Cent in the video is actually 50 Cent's own cousin. Towards the end in the video, a middle-aged woman with leathery skin appears next to a hot pink Honda S2000, which is exactly the same car driven by Devon Aoki in the film ''2 Fast 2 Furious. The video debuted on the U.S. MTV Total Request Live countdown on January 31 and peaked at number six; it remained on the countdown for fourteen days, until February 23. The video was retired on the Poland version of MTV's Total Request Live, and it won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Pop Video in August 2006 (see 2006 MTV Video Music Awards). When she was receiving the award, P!nk parodied Paris Hilton by talking in a higher pitched voice and acting overly excited. Ironically, Nicole Richie co-presented the award. Live performances P!nk included live performances of the song in both her I'm Not Dead Tour and her Funhouse Tour. The song was rumored to appear in the setlist for The Truth About Love Tour but was ultimately left out. References Category:Songs Category:Singles Category:Songs from I'm Not Dead Category:Songs from Greatest Hits... So Far!!! Category:Singles from I'm Not Dead